Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Dial back the romance.

I think that certain characters should reject you based on you race at the very least.
I just don't see SH going for a gith, nor do I see Astarion considering any of the short races for romance, but at the very least not gnomes and dwarves. Haflings could get a pass.
I can see Wyll, Gale and Lae going for anything though.

Just finished grabbing it myself. I look forward to destabilising it further with my inept modding!

Holy moly...just finished my first playthru and the whole romance thing is no joke...wth is everyone all horned dogged at the camp party!? They all need to go to horny jail. It started feeling weird just talking with the companions because the conversation option of being "fancy" with one another was always there.

Can we please have just some serious bro/girlmances that lead to really rememberable friendships. I'm not trying to accidentally seduce any characters haha. Make those conversation options more meaningful and subtlety direct if that makes sense haha. Like I can earnestly just care about Gale and shadowheart without them giving me sexy eyes.

And its not so much on the PC needing to be told "sorry sugar but you missed out". The companions need to go to horny jail rehab lol.

To be honest, I now see situation with romance in cyberpunk, and it is terrible. There are 4 romantic characters in total. There is not a single bisexual among them, so if you are not bisexual yourself, then you have only 1 option + prostitutes...

This is what I'm talking about, orientation reduces your options too much, in a game like cyberpunk, you don't even have a choice... You are either with the one you are given, or alone, or forced to change gender of your character. But what if I don't want to play a male character at all? What if I don't like the one character that the developers thought I should have liked?

That's why "all bisexuals" is a great, optimal option that gives everyone a choice. It's better to have some kind of romance with a character that you like than no romance or romance with a character who just fits your gender...

I still think that in BG3 you can make a lock race, but not gender.

I think that's just an argument for why romance should not neccessarily be a central selling point of a video-game. People get their hopes up too much and then they are disappointed, even though the game was never supposed to be a dating sim in the first place. Again, I'm not against romances, but at this point they became so central to how we judge a game that it's positively unhealthy.

Companies should sell an adevnture first and foremost and then sprinkle romance on top.

I think it's not up to you to decide what's unhealthy and what's not. This is just a function, and yes, someone play game just for sake of this function, just as some play only for sake of beautiful graphics etc.

For me, the possibility of romance in game is one of the most important, and I do not consider it something "unhealthy". I just love this function. Of course, I don't play game just for it, otherwise I would never have played Tyranny, lol. But this is on top of "importance" for me, it's like in top3. I'm much more attached to games if there are romance. And I think it's not just about me, there are many such people. BG3 was never marketed as a "dating simulator", but romance are most talked about topic among people... The expected interest.

I don't understand why people like you should deprive me of fun just because you think it's least important or "unhealthy" for judge a game.

Hey now, don't get touchy, if you can say that you don't like a romance, I can say that I think it's unhealthy to base the goodness of a game on whether or not it has romances.
Also they are not even finished yet so just keep calm and see where it goes. As I said I'm not against romances, but the way some people act as if they should be central to BG3 is ridicolous especially given how they are completely optional. Again, nothing wrong with options, but let's not act like everything depends on this.
Also me and "people like me " (lol) are not depriving you of anything, you are clearly getting your romance, and if anything you are trying to bully me into silence because I have an opinion about romance-plots in general that you don't like.

You mean 'like'.... In that case I'm very interested in why you came to topic where romance are discussed. To say that it's not that important? LUL

Umm no. Stories should not be pansexual friendly. Stories should be stories and characters should be characters. Having all characters be mind wide open to any and every attraction, it takes away from their character. The PC is the only important character that can be pansexual, because that's you, you are your character.

I said this comment before, but characters need preference, not because they need preference, but because they need character. Lae zel is a hard warrior women, it only makes sense that she finds her attraction to a bad ass warrior as well. But that shouldn't stop a PC to pursue her anyways. Maybe there is a chance if PC can accomplish xyz to win her attraction.

I dont want to make too many comparisons to real life to our game but, even in real life. Some people will just not like you like that, because you are just who you are. You can't fault characters for their preferences. This is a fighting adventure "fantasy" game, not a "fantasy" date sim. The camp scene really made this game go from a fellowship to a harem.

Really? To give a concrete example: I played through Dragon Age Inquisition with no romances. Cassandra was one of the better characters for me; I did all her content and always talked to her. I felt I had a solid grasp of her character and that she was relatively deep. But now I find that at no point was I looking at a fully fleshed character: am I to believe that I only really understood her when I watched the 1 minute long scene on YouTube where she says 'the flirting has to stop' to a female PC? That's nonsense. Characters don't 'need' to have a sexuality to be fleshed out, certainly not in this game where it's already not an important part of any of their arcs.

I don't know about being unhealthy or whatever. But I would say that the interest in romances certainly seems disproportionate to the time you spend actually in the scenes in-game; this is in my opinion more like a proxy for the amount of interest in companion interactions in general. I definitely agree that romance comes too hard and fast (perhaps because they felt compelled to put some in EA) and a slower process would be good. But I see no reason to go back from the playersexuality thing.

There is a range between "every companion being attracted to a single gender" (Cyberpunk I guess?) and "all companions being player-/pansexual" (BG3). Both extremes have negatives: the former harms player ability to romance a character they actually like and the latter (arguably) breaks immersion and/or detracts from NPC characterization. Cyberpunk's problem seems to be the limited number of romanceable options, which strongly restricts player choice and thus fun. BG3, on the other hand, I think went too far. With the 8(+ allegedly?) companions, it would be more fine if each companion had defned sexual preferences. The player would still have the choice of 2-4 companions no matter their gender/orientation.

I agree that NPC characterization is important in crafting a believable NPC, but why can't bi(or pan)-sexuality be one of those traits? In your Lae'zel example, it would be perfectly in character for her to be straight, gay, bisexual, or +, as long as she still only goes for strong people.

I feel like I confused what I was saying in my comment. The o ly player that should be pan sexual is the PC because that is the player's freedom to choose whom and all they want to pursue.

To reiterate my point, I believe story characters, (NPC's, companions, etc) should have a sexuality. Because they are a story based character. They need to be who they are. Not someone that can just fit the PC's narrative, unless you play your cards right and you truly appeal to the story character's story.

If Larian can make a masterful RPG story, there should be romantic options for everyone because that's a player's freedom to behave. But not all story characters should just be openly receptive to any and every player character, with certain checks and proper advances.

It would be more compelling to play my PC and pursue a companion I liked, to maybe find out that he does swing my way. But thru our story and adventures, he'll always love me and accept me for our fellowship. I made a life long friend that accepts me for me, and I likewise to him.

Better friendship stories are better than fluid relationships (unless that is a certain story character's story).

Looking at BG3, it seems to be pretty much the industry standard now. We got
1) Lae'zel where wiki says "Githyanki reproduced by laying eggs. It was unknown whether this trait had been acquired during their period of enslavement or as a result of exposure to the Astral Plane". That's an interesting romance candidate, lol. How do you like it? Sunny side up!
2) Shadowheart who is OK I guess if you are into goth chicks
3) .... ?

But that f-ng vampire is trying to screw you at every opportunity. Not cool.

This.

Romance? Hmmmm, more like RAW, VULGAR SEX !!

Gale - sweegedi swooty he came for Mystras booty!
Wyll - we all know why Wyll truly said 'yes' (LoL)

Lae'zel - her flail and black latex outfit is missing
Astarion - sex, drugs and "succs"

Sassyheart - she did herself more then anything by serving Shar


Everyone and everything is so "f*cked up" !!
I mean "f*ck" man!

Astarion and Lae'zel do not surprise me though. I never had my character do it with either of them.
They are just such vulgar and primitive people and their unemphatic personalitys don't intrigue me.
In that case, even tho I bash Shadowheart the most, I must say the air of mystery around her makes her interesting.

€dit:
My high Drow female did it with Minthara of course.
She does not consort with the lesser races if she can get a piece of Lolths divine craft. (hahahahaha)

Everything you just said, that is the cancer of all companion filled RPGs...

This brings up a good point, but I'd like to add to it. Romance is overmarketted (sex sells, I guess) but will almost always underdeliver. Part of this is due to the fact it's seemingly impossible to replicate "romance" in a videogame. It is either extremely cringe, pornography, or both.

I don't really have a problem with player-sexuality, although it's connected to the discussion of "what gives the player more options" vs. "what makes the player more immersed," but think it's a big mistake to put romance front and centre. Dangling it in your face. I can see the value of it as something on the side with just enough meat for imagination to do the rest, but even as a teenager I was never a fan of more than that.

For the record, I cringed so much during Lae'zel's "scene" that I actually felt ill.

Astarion trying to get into your pants at every opportunity seems pretty on brand for a vampire tbh, lore wise they're pretty damn horny undead in any given iteration of their lore if its dracula that has to seduce/hypnotize virgins (oh suuuure it's because of their 'pure blood' w/e drac was hornt af) or astarion trying to get into your pants whenever he can after

lae'zel's horniness is weird but can become on brand if larian develops her fascination for fae'run and let the MC cultivate her curiosity, gith don't seem to really be the type to be overtly into romance and would probably be more into the carnal lust if anything so this can still be on brand here, if developing enough approval she does start to develop curiosity about fae'run and its inhabitants as she's still a complete stranger to these lands which I dunno, there's some good potential there.

shadowheart's fine really imo

gale/wyll not explored yet will do in other playthroughs if I can't get find workarounds for some gamebreaking cyberpunk bugs

wyll's

oh come on how can you not laugh at that scene, it's jank af atm with very placeholdery animations and it even fades to an 'under construction' fadeaway lol

that whole segment was hilarious if you ask me, but if you think that one's bad that scene was even more janky

It only appears this way because the realworld societys of our own world are extremly cringe and superficial I feel.
We live in pretty disgusting societys which value the materialistic about everything else.
Because Media made people this way, intentionally or unintentionally.

It is highly unlikely if you can even find a person that is not superficial.
Of course you cannot if you don't try, but its still only luck if you do.

Feels like I beat around the bush a little.

The world of Fae'run is not our's!
Their societys there are not our's!
What do we know about what is romance to THEM?

We cannot judge it.
We can interprete and try to relate at best.
I managed to give Sassyheart alot of emotional leeway in the last weeks.
She truly is more interesting if I do not compare her to a "stronk independent Wamen" of our own world after all.
At the beginning she and Lae'zel appeared like "Feminism" icon's to me.
But Lae'zel is just a "shipwrecked SciFi-cavewoman that got lost" (lol) and Sassyheart is paranoid due to her self-inflicted Amnesia.

And Astarion being a "manwhore" is no surprise, he's a Vamp-badboy after all.
Thanks the gods he did not started to sparkle in the sunlight.
But a male Vampire is like half a male poledancer already don't you think? ^_^